TCA Roundup: Oprah Speaks. And Speaks…

The cable portion of the Television Critics’ Association winter press tour has begun in Los Angeles. As appealing as Southern California—or even the inside of a hotel conference room—sounds from Brooklyn right now, I am not attending, for reasons personal and professional. But here are some highlights from the coverage so far, and I’ll keep tracking it as the tour goes on:

* Oprah Winfrey took the stage to talk about her new cable channel, OWN. One hapless reporter asked her a question about her dreams, and Winfrey gave an exhaustive answer approximately the length of the missing section of the Watergate tapes. Alan Sepinwall has the complete transcript, complete with the I-assume-appropriate utter lack of paragraph breaks. (Update: The simul-tweets are even more entertaining.)

* Piers Morgan introduced himself before taking over the Larry King time slot at CNN, and attempted to impress reporters by announcing that his first guest will be… Oprah Winfrey! Because no one can get her to talk.

* Playboy TV is trying to raise its profile with reality TV. (What, porn is not reality?) It introduced Brooklyn Kinda Love (see video above), a series following four couples from my borough that I intend to watch, if only to find out whether “Brooklyn Kinda Love” refers to a specific type of sexual practice. And there’s Swing, about partner-swapping, because apparently, as Playboy TV claimed in all seriousness, that’s what the ladies love.